


One for the Books

by The_Exile



Category: Original Work
Genre: Books, Crushes, Demons, F/M, Fantasy, Libraries, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25609633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: The library has a lot of problems with their books - if it isn't demons being summoned from out of books because of badly worded instructions, its possessed books coming to life and eating people. Their local Adventurer's Guild always sends the same warrior. The same newly recruited librarian is always left on reception to deal with her and with the rest of the trouble. They start to grow close.
Relationships: Male Librarian/Female Adventurer
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9
Collections: Het Swap Exchange 2020





	One for the Books

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).



"Okay, where is it this time?" she sighed, hands on hips.

"Fifth aisle, third row, second to bottom shelf. Local history. Although, if you ask me, its miscategorised," he replied as if by rote, "Also, it was floating, so at the speed it was going, it could be anywhere between home cooking and werebeast anatomy. I could try and scan it down for you if you'd like! I don't think its going to try and disguise itself as a normal book any more - almost everyone in the building saw it move!"

"That'd be useful. What kind of book am I looking for?"

"Red, leatherbound, possibly firedrake hide," he replied, "It had a green silk ribbon for a bookmark. Kind of small for a cursed book. Didn't register as magical at all when we scanned it in. Oh, and it's got teeth."

"Of course it has," she cursed under her breath, "The scanners are pretty powerful in here, right? So, if it was able to disguise its magical signature, its going to be dangerously strong."

"Well, you know by now that I can provide some backup. I know some basic healing, a little shielding magic, stuff I pick up from the books when the library's not busy..."

She nodded, "Do what you can but keep yourself out of danger, too. I'm a professional. I'm used to it. Besides, I'll claim expenses from the Guild if I'm hurt."

"I'll care if you get hurt, though," he muttered under his breath, blushing despite his best efforts. He'd grabbed the wand he kept under the table for emergencies - well, mostly to keep the roof gargoyles from sneaking in and stealing someone's lunch - but his hands were trembling, too slippery with sweat to be trusted to hold a potential weapon accurately enough to be trusted around valuable antique books.

"Thanks, that's kind of you," she remarked, "Most of the librarians treat me as expendable. I get the impression they don't like having a boorish oaf like me near the books. You're different."

"I... I'm quite new here, just a year out of the academy, so I get that a lot from them too."

"I hope they treat you more like one of their own once you've been there a few more years and they get used to it," she replied, "You always seem to be here when I come round to sweep up."

He did blush this time, "Th... they usually put me on reception, especially to talk to external hired services. They don't want to stoop to such a level themselves, or something. N... not that I think like that about you! Actually, to be honest, I'd rather talk to you. It won't get me involved in any office politics. I j... just want to stay out of it all and do my job so I don't get fired."

"Sounds like a good idea. I've been offered an actual rank in the Guild myself. Flat turned it down, no matter the pay and the prestige. I can get enough good bounties fighting monsters, like I'm supposed to be doing. There's too much actually wrong with the world that needs dealing with now to be sitting in the Guild house all day."

"Okay, I found it, its in the folklore section. Probably looking for its friends. I told them they misfiled it..."

"Eh, its almost certainly not about whatever it says it is on the cover," she said, drawing her sword, "Assuming it didn't eat you when you touched it. Or let you read a few pages, then summon an Ifrit. Again."

"That was messy last time."

"Yeah, thanks for the fire shield, it saved my ass."

"We all learn that one first. I can do water and wind too. I'm working on lightning."

"Maybe you should tag along," she grinned, then her eyes narrowed and her face became all business, "Let's go!"

"Mind the step," he yelled, running to catch up with her long strides. She turned her head from side to side as she stalked the aisles like a panther, causing her single braid of auburn hair, tied back out of her face, to whip around where it fell from the bottom of her leather coif. There could be other things in the library that didn't belong there, or technically did but were supposed to be under lock and key, preferably in separate strongboxes surrounded by magical wards. There usually was at least one incident each month. Often, the people who donated the books didn't even know they were cursed. It was very difficult to tell. The crafty demonic books didn't make themselves massive tomes bound in human flesh and written in blood, full of eldritch sigils and pictures of unspeakable horrors. Those were exactly the sort of books people suspected. The bound Ifrit had come out of a technical manual for pastry chefs.

A fluttering, like the wings of bats, if bats were made of paper, broke the silence. It was answered by a sharp ring as the adventurer drew her curved saber, a sturdy if ordinary-looking weapon, then smashed a vial of holy water against it, sending the liquid dripping, shining and hissing down the heavy blade. Then she threw the broken vial down and drew her shield, a round wooden one with iron studs, also with the sheen of an enchantment or potion of some kind. Turning the corner into the local folklore section, she answered the beast's screech with a fiercely roared battle cry, then lunged at the snapping, flailing book-fiend. 

He watched their battle for a few seconds, almost unable to keep up with the speed of their ferocious exchange, the adventurer meeting every snap of the demon's teeth with a lightning riposte. That was an exceptional level of skill for a warrior, he recognised. He didn't know much about battle outside of occasional library security issues but he'd read and heard enough to recognise that much. The things she knew about, too, and casually mentioned that she'd fought - the places she'd been, the information she came in outside of her working hours to look up, maps of even more weird and wonderful places and the anatomical weak points of dangerous beasts - they were all beyond the scope of an everyday heavily armed temp worker you hired from the Guild of Adventurers to clear the rats out of your wine cellar. And yet, he mused, that was exactly what she pretended to be. She told him about legendary artifacts of power, then walked in with a suit of leather armour and a sword she'd bought from the shop down the road. 

The very fact that she was hiding her identity when most adventurers constantly bragged about their accomplishments told him that she was involved in a much more epic quest than usual, maybe a true, legendary destiny, the sort that he regularly had to cart around thirty large volumes of tales about. It was as obvious to him as a book on pastry turning up with a faint magical signature, and yet nobody in authority took the slightest notice of his warnings. 

Then again, he also mused, his face turning red again, he also paid a lot more attention to her than most probably would.

A familiar sensation interrupted his thoughts, a rusty tang and a feeling of unnameable suspense in the air that could only mean a powerful spell was about to be cast. He flung his arm out and threw a shield of force around the adventurer just before a volley of arcane missiles flew from the book's pages directly at her.

One of the magic missiles went wild and hit a book. It had cost three hundred Crowns and now it was a pile of scorched scrap paper on the floor. 

"Sorry 'bout that," she said, shooing the beast away from the antiquarian books with a wild swing of her sword.

"Not your fault," he replied, "Still probably coming out of my wages, though."

"Fancy making up the difference in your spare time?" she asked. 

"What d'you mean?" he threw a basic first aid spell at her, where the book had managed to clamp its teeth into her shoulder. 

"I need a partner in my next job. Its a bit risky for me to take on by myself. You've got potential as a field support mage once you get a bit of experience under your belt. And then I'll take you out to dinner at the tavern as a bonus," she grinned, ducking to avoid a mass of tentacles that had now emerged from the book, "I've seen how you look at me. I know why you're really always here when I am. You're really damn obvious."

A lump caught in his throat. He scratched behind his ear, "I... I suppose I have gotten a little unsubtle."

"If you don't actually like risking your life - I realise some of here are still sane due to not enough blows to the head - the Guild always needs competent librarians too. Record keeping is the backbone of all the important services - resurrections, mass retreat for large parties..."

"I'm not just doing this for a way out of my humdrum life, Kate. I even sort of like the library - not the people, but you get to know the books, sentient and otherwise," he prudently waited for her to wipe off the acidic green goo that now spurted out of the book that was pinned to the wall with her sword, then he took her hand and looked into her eyes, "Its you I'm attracted to. For real."

"Katerina," she corrected him, "Call me by my real name."

"Wait... you're THE Katerina Damon? The Hellcat?"

"Don't call me stupid nicknames. And don't go all starstruck on me, or I'll leave that mess on the wall for you to sort out."

"I doubt that, I've seen the bounty on those things."

"True," she shrugged, "You can help me get it to the Guild House before it dissolves, then. The tavern's on the way but we should get the money, then go on the way back."

"Sure thing. Just let me lock up."


End file.
